Island Hopping: Cleaning coast makes for fun day on beach

Karen Grainey photo Eric Close helps out at the recent Clean Coast cleanup on Wassaw Island.

Until last Saturday, I wouldn’t have thought you could have a good time picking up trash.

Participating in Clean Coast’s cleanup of the beach on the north end of Wassaw Island on Sept. 14, however, gave me a different outlook on collecting litter.

Clean Coast is a Savannah-based, all-volunteer nonprofit that holds monthly cleanups of marine debris on beaches and in marshes along the Georgia coast.

Thus far this year, members of the organization have picked up trash on Little Tybee Island and the north and south ends of Ossabaw and Wassaw islands, and at Raccoon Key, Fort Pulaski National Monument on Cockspur Island and the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. Next month, on the 26th, they’re scheduled to visit Blackbeard Island.

Leaders of the 22-year-old group estimate that an average of 800 to 1,000 pounds of trash is collected per cleanup.

“It’s fun,” said Clean Coast member Joe Bonds when I asked him on the beach at Wassaw why he’s taken part in the cleanups for the better part of the past decade.

“Mostly, though,” said Joe, a resident of Wilmington Island and the organization’s treasurer, “we want to get other people involved and sensitive to the fact that our beaches are pretty trashy, and that’s not a good thing.”

Not good, as Joe and other Clean Coast members will tell you, because marine debris can be harmful to wildlife – sometimes fatally, in addition to being an eyesore for humans.

So, what’s fun about spending a few hours picking up trash?

Well, last weekend, there was the boat ride on a gorgeous late summer day to isolated Wassaw, where a walk on the wide and beautiful north-end beach takes you through an almost-surreal “bone yard” of fallen trees.

There was the company of a group of ultra-positive folks, about 20 of them, who were enthusiastic about aiding the environment.

There was the work itself, which took the form of a trashy treasure hunt. It was fun to see what you could find and how much you could accumulate.

My three-person team of trash collectors picked up lots of plastic bottles and tin cans and about a gazillion pieces of Styrofoam, in addition to food wrappers, plastic bags, balloons and bits of rope. There was an emphasis on collecting plastic items, as voiced by Clean Coast President Karen Grainey, because of their resistance to breaking down naturally.

After a couple of hours of walking the beach, all the volunteers returned to our landing site, where there was socializing around a table laden with snacks, including sweet treats made by Charlotte Dixon, the organization’s vice president and the owner of a Wilmington Island bakery.

And, there was, as longtime Clean Coast member Charlotte Keenoy put it, “playing in the water” for folks who chose to take dips in the nearby Atlantic Ocean.

One of those was Julie Gamble, who had driven for an hour and a half from Ludowici to participate in the day‘s activities.

“I love it,” she said of the cleanups, with Saturday’s being her third. “The people are outstanding, and you’re doing something to conserve our environment. I find it to be very relaxing and rewarding.”

If you’re interested in becoming a member of Clean Coast and/or participating in a cleanup, visit the organization’s website at www.cleancoast.org or send an e-mail to mailbox@cleancoast.org.

The organization is always on the lookout for volunteers, in particular those who own boats and can provide transportation to cleanups.

Membership dues are $15 for students and seniors, $25 for individuals and $35 for families, with the money being used for supplies and to maintain the organization’s pickup truck and 24-foot-long skiff.